I don't really care about the legality of "hardcore" chemical drugs (the likes of heroin, meth, amphetamines, synthetic/semi-synthetic opiates, benzodiazepenes...etc). What I care about is the stark idiocy of making naturally available things illegal. The consumption of things like mushrooms, cactus (peyote/San Pedro), root bark (mimosa, banisteriopsis) , marijuana should logically be up to each and every human. You can warn and inform, but it's ridiculous and silly to make nature illegal. This even extends to substances such as LSD, which has shown time and time again its benefit to human beings.

"I believe that with the advent of acid, we discovered a new way to think, and it has to do with piecing together new thoughts in your mind. Why is it that people think it's so evil? What is it about it that scares people so deeply, even the guy that invented it, what is it? Because they're afraid that there's more to reality than they have confronted. That there are doors that they're afraid to go in, and they don't want us to go in there either, because if we go in we might learn something that they don't know. And that makes us a little out of their control" - Ken Kesey

I don't really care about the legality of "hardcore" chemical drugs (the likes of heroin, meth, amphetamines, synthetic/semi-synthetic opiates, benzodiazepenes...etc). What I care about is the stark idiocy of making naturally available things illegal. The consumption of things like mushrooms, cactus (peyote/San Pedro), root bark (mimosa, banisteriopsis) , marijuana should logically be up to each and every human. You can warn and inform, but it's ridiculous and silly to make nature illegal. This even extends to substances such as LSD, which has shown time and time again its benefit to human beings.

"I believe that with the advent of acid, we discovered a new way to think, and it has to do with piecing together new thoughts in your mind. Why is it that people think it's so evil? What is it about it that scares people so deeply, even the guy that invented it, what is it? Because they're afraid that there's more to reality than they have confronted. That there are doors that they're afraid to go in, and they don't want us to go in there either, because if we go in we might learn something that they don't know. And that makes us a little out of their control" - Ken Kesey

As a chemist, it drives me mad whenever I read/hear : natural = good, chemical = bad. Natural products can be absolutely harmless or deadly poisonous, just like artificially produced molecules...

Also, I laugh (respectfully) at "Should drugs be researched for their medical effects ?". Do you really believe they aren't already ?

To op: you don't know heroin. Let me tell you just this: imagine your strongest orgasm x100 intensity, for the entire trip. I think it's a day. It gets everyone addicted, without a miss. That's what I'm told. Some drugs should never be legalized, like krokodil etc. And LSD can really give you a good experience but it fucked up a lot of people for life as well. Some trips you never, ever get out. Never :/

I don't really care about the legality of "hardcore" chemical drugs (the likes of heroin, meth, amphetamines, synthetic/semi-synthetic opiates, benzodiazepenes...etc). What I care about is the stark idiocy of making naturally available things illegal. The consumption of things like mushrooms, cactus (peyote/San Pedro), root bark (mimosa, banisteriopsis) , marijuana should logically be up to each and every human. You can warn and inform, but it's ridiculous and silly to make nature illegal. This even extends to substances such as LSD, which has shown time and time again its benefit to human beings.

"I believe that with the advent of acid, we discovered a new way to think, and it has to do with piecing together new thoughts in your mind. Why is it that people think it's so evil? What is it about it that scares people so deeply, even the guy that invented it, what is it? Because they're afraid that there's more to reality than they have confronted. That there are doors that they're afraid to go in, and they don't want us to go in there either, because if we go in we might learn something that they don't know. And that makes us a little out of their control" - Ken Kesey

As a chemist, it drives me mad whenever I read/hear : natural = good, chemical = bad. Natural products can be absolutely harmless or deadly poisonous, just like artificially produced molecules...

Also, I laugh (respectfully) at "Should drugs be researched for their medical effects ?". Do you really believe they aren't already ?

You misunderstood. This topic is asking about drugs. There are two classes of drugs, synthetic and natural. I said all the synthetic ones, I do not really care about. THen I advocated the natural ones, never saying "they should be legal because natural is better than chemical". I said natural should be legal because..well, it's natural. That's it.

Psychedelic drugs are vastly under-researched and minimally understood, by the way.

To op: you don't know heroin. Let me tell you just this: imagine your strongest orgasm x100 intensity, for the entire trip. I think it's a day. It gets everyone addicted, without a miss. That's what I'm told. Some drugs should never be legalized, like krokodil etc. And LSD can really give you a good experience but it fucked up a lot of people for life as well. Some trips you never, ever get out. Never :/

True, but you can't blame the substance. Something triggered that bad trip, external or internal, and is almost always due to a fault in set/setting.

Well, you actually can blame the substance though. As an essential prerequisite for the (bad) trip. And it's impossible to point the exact cause of a bad trip. With other substances, even legal ones, SWIK experienced bad trips in a good mood and setting. At the end of the day, it's still drugs

Drugs being illegal is creating a market for dealers. Legalizing it and even create state production facilities can create quality control and annihilate profit margins dealers have. Where I live it happened with marijuana and the dealer's market is marginalized to those without access to legal alternatives, which is foreigners.

I don't live in the States, and in my country we don't have a serious drug problem. So my opinion may carry little weight,

I don't want legal drugs. What I want is free psychological support for everyone. Maybe it's more expensive but it saves lives.

Now, after learning all these things about Mexico's drug cartels, I would seriously vote for the legalization of drugs if I lived in the States, even though I am against it. I would prefer something like sending that stupid army you got there in the states to obliterate the cartels, but you'd rather occupy Iraq. It's common as well as unfortunate, that the goverment's interests are not the people's interests...